Both the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto IV downloadable content coming to the Xbox 360 and the DS-based Chinatown Wars may be hitting later than expected, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick told a gathering at today's BMO Capital Markets 16th Annual Interactive Entertainment Conference in New York City. "Some of your are interested in our release schedule," he said. "To update that, our PC title will be released early next month. Downloadable content is a big undertaking. It's important that it be really special, really something unexpected by consumers. We're setting incredibly high standards for it. We have it planned for the end of the first quarter. It's close to be completed. That said, it may move into the second quarter depending on its completion date.""Chinatown Wars we've decided to move out of the first quarter in order to fill out a better launch and marketing window. The title will ship in the first half of our fiscal year and we will provide more information on release dates by the time we report our earnings next month." The comments came following a presentation by Zelnick that both highlighted the company's successes and stressed the concerns he and other developers have about the seemingly worsening economy. "On the horizon we see a number of strategic growth opportunities including new channels of distribution, new markets, new products and new business models," he told the gathering. "We have a very strong publishing platform and an unrivaled development team." But minutes later he described the current retail conditions as "extraordinarily challenging" and said that there has been a "softening of retail" that has had a negative impact on the industry. So Take-Two's strategy is to "release a limited number of top tier titles" in the hope it will cushion the publisher in the short run. Thanks to MTV Multiplayer for the heads-up.
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